With completion of our annual election, I would like to thank our members who took the time to go online and vote, making your voices heard.

With the election results, I am pleased to announce that the proposed Bylaws were approved by an overwhelming margin. I believe this step, along with others taken in the past year and those planned, will help ensure AACE stays relevant and vibrant well into the future.  I would like to thank the Restructuring Task Force team for their efforts in leading this initiative.  Now the next phase of hard work begins with the transition to the new structure and updates to our operating processes to deliver on this vision. 

I would also like to congratulate the newly elected President-Elect, Shoshanna Fraizinger; Secretary, Mark Sanders; and the elected Regional Directors – Eric Cannon (Region 3), John Armstrong (Region 5), Nour El Imane Bouhou (Region 6), Sankar Subrahmaniyam (Region 8), and Piero G. Anticona (Region 10). I look forward to their contributions in supporting members in their regions and in other ways. 

I’m excited about this year’s Virtual Conference & Expo (C&E) and Boston Retreat.  While the original plan had been for the C&E to be held in Boston, we are all still dealing with pandemic effects including the need to maintain social distancing and business/government restrictions on travel and gatherings. Therefore, we made the decision to hold the C&E virtually again this year.  The difference is we have more time to plan and execute the event rather than the last-minute shift in 2020.  We are working with a new vendor to deliver the virtual C&E and expect it to be a much more enjoyable and user-friendly event.  Once again, this will allow attendees to participate regardless of location and their ability to travel.  Participants will get to choose between two concurrent sessions for each time slot, as well as receive a wealth of recorded sessions to watch at their convenience along with the technical papers supporting each presentation.

The Boston Retreat is a new type of event for AACE.  We will focus on multiple aspects of a single topic – Change and Claims Management.  The Retreat will be an interactive event with round tables, panel discussions, and sharing of stories with experts.  Due to Covid-19 and prioritizing the need for safety, attendance is limited. If you are interested in attending, please register early. 

I’m also excited about the new format for our Source magazine. With our February issue, we moved to a more “online” structure with features and articles being added throughout the month rather than just publishing a complete PDF document online.  This approach helps busy readers access content quicker and easier. I know in the past I often opened the PDF, saw some articles I wanted to read, but lost track over time and never went back to them. Be sure to follow AACE International on LinkedIn to keep up to date with the latest postings.  You can also link to Source from our main website or bookmark it at https://source.aacei.org/.  Since its launch, we’ve seen visitors continually throughout the month with peaks when new articles were posted. This is a great way to make AACE part of your daily life. I hope you enjoy the new format. 

Thank you.

Chris Caddell

President, AACE International